Our Top Website Do’s and Don’ts for 2021 and Beyond

Are you looking for ways to improve your business website? Perhaps you’re in the process of creating a new site or debating whether you actually need a website (trust us, you do.)

Potential customers are searching for you online, and you’re missing out if you don’t have a web presence. Social media pages are no longer enough in the digital age. While building a website can seem overwhelming — it doesn’t have to be!

Let’s take a look at some of our do’s and don’ts for your website in the new year and beyond. 

Top 4 Website Do’s

1. Make Sure Your Site is Mobile-Friendly

This is your first priority. No matter how great and wonderful your website is to look at on the desktop or laptop — how does it look on mobile phones and tablets? Make sure your web design changes to accommodate the viewing screen your potential client is accessing your site on. Having a mobile responsive website will ensure that all vital information will be displayed properly no matter where visitors see your website – Whether that be with customised menus (such as hamburger menus), automatically resized text, or mobile-optimised images – so that no one has a reason to leave due to a poor user experience

2. Add Customer Reviews and Testimonials

There are plenty of places on the Internet for customers to leave their reviews about products and services. Sometimes negativity happens. By adding customer reviews and testimonials to your website, you can showcase the positive and comment on the negative. Potential customers like to see what previous customers had to say about the products or services you offer, and they will want to see how you respond to criticism and bad user experiences to gauge your integrity and customer service. Being upfront about your reviews and promoting your positive feedback will give your potential customers a reason to trust you and your service.

3. Make It Easy for People to Contact You

One of the best features a website can have is the ability to contact you right from the homepage. Too many clicks in navigation for contact could result in the potential customer leaving your website. Your contact form is one of the most essential pieces on your website. 

Live chat is another great way to accomplish this is a more immediate and engaging way that can both capture user information and provide answers for commonly asked questions.

4. Make It Easy to Navigate Your Website

There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to find what you are looking for once you land on a business’s website. Even worse, when it takes you 20 clicks to get there. Navigation is crucial for ensuring your website visitors find what they are looking for. 

Be sure to:

• Utilize top-level navigation
• Use clear labels for navigation options
• Reduce the number of clicks to get to destinations as much as possible
• Clearly label your menus
• Include navigation options in the site footer area
• Change the color of visited links

Top 5 Website Don’ts

1. Don’t Underestimate the Power of SEO

It would be best to aim for at least 250 words of text per page with appropriate keywords included. Even better if you can create posts of 1,000 words or more as these provide value to website visitors — keeping them on your site longer. 

Take your content seriously. Even if your site is designed beautifully, it’s no more than an empty frame without good content. Make sure your content is relevant to your business. The irrelevant text doesn’t bring value to your website or to your visitors. 

2. Don’t Use Too Many Colors

Too many colours can be distracting. Using the wrong colour combinations can be blinding. Keep it simple — keep website visitors.  Pantone Color Institute has announced that the trendsetting colours for 2021 will be Pantone 17-5104 Ultimate Gray and Pantone 13-0647 Illuminating. The grey and yellow tones work well together while still remaining independent and complementary. 

Using colour in design is all about balance. The more colours you use, the harder it will be for you to achieve that balance. When you use colours in design – every colour is a representation of a feeling. When you have too many colours, you convey a million emotions or messages at once. This will lead to visitors being confused as to the vibe and intention of your messaging and serves to be more of a distraction than a compliment.

3. Don’t Use Hard-to-Read Fonts

Fonts can make or break a website. No website visitor wants to spend time trying to decipher what your website says. Stick to simple and classy fonts that are easy to read and look right at home on a webpage, such as classic Serif fonts… Serif is one of the oldest font styles still being used today, dating back to the 15th century. Serif fonts are seen as elegant, classic, and trustworthy, and have come back into vogue in the past few years. 

It is also worth noting that you shouldn’t use many typefaces. It’s tempting to use many different styles, but it’s best to avoid that. Too many variations in types of fonts and techniques can be distracting, confusing to readers, and often seen as annoying. 

4. Don’t Have a Slow-Loading Website

Loading time is crucial for your website. Sadly, as technology progresses, humans get more impatient. 47% of Internet users expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less. 39% of Internet users will not engage with a website if the images won’t load or the pages take too long to load. Once your website’s pages load, visitors will form their opinion in 0.05 seconds. That’s not a lot of time for you to make your first impression!

5. Don’t Open Internal Links in New Tabs

Website visitors don’t want multiple tabs open when they’re navigating your website. When a user clicks an internal link, take them directly to that link within the same tab. Only external links should open in a new tab or window, allowing the user to toggle back and forth as they see fit. You always want to keep them within your website for as long as possible.